COLOMBO:  The Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has raised the Kashmir issue during his state visit to Sri Lanka after the sixth South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit collapsed.

India lodged a protest over the raking up of the Kashmir dispute, which the country considers a strictly bilateral matter, in a meeting of head of the government of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The four countries concluded their meeting recently, held at the invitation of the Sri Lankan president, Ranasing he Premadasa, following the cancellation of the Colombo summit.

A senior Sri Lankan official said the government first considered deleting Sharif’s references to Kashmir from the copy of his banquet speech released to the press before deciding against

The Bangladesh Prime Minister, Khaledi Zia, and the Maldivian president, Maumoon Abdul Gayom, who held bilateral talks with Premadasa recently flew home later. Navaz Sharif had a second round of discussions with Premadasa.

PAKISTANS STAND: Nawaz Sharif’s remark on Kashmir came urging the state banquet hosted by Premadasa for the visiting leaders. He said that Pakistan stood for peace in the region and for resolve- disputes through negotiations. It strongly supported the United Nations proposals for peaceful resolution of the Afghanistan issue.

We also stand for the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination in accordance with UN resolution,” he said. “At the same time, we are committed bilateral discussions with India in order to seek a resolution to Kashmir and all other issues that have bedeviled relations between our two countries”. The Kashmir remark seems not to have been part of the  original draft of Nawaz Sharif’s banquet speech. In the officially-released photocopy of the address, it appears as a handwritten paragraph.

But the hint of what was coming was there in the opening speech of Mohammed Siddique Kanju, the Pakistani minister of state for forcing affairs, at the SAARC council of ministers meeting on Tues- day. The minister made a general remark on the emerging world order, mentioning that there was growing respect for the right to self-determination: In a recent banquet speech, Nawaz Sharif reiterated his disappointment over the calling off of the Colombo summit, and urged co- operation to ensure that SAARC emerged stronger so that the aspirations of the south Asian peoples are fulfilled”.

Sharif said that he, Gayoom and Khaleda Zia were in Colombo to “demonstrate our solidarity with you as also our appreciation for the magnificent arrangement that your government had made for a successful summit.

We are not discouraged or disheartened by recent events. In fact they provide an impetus for us to make an even greater effort to ensure the success of the association-

Nawaz Sharif has been the most vocal of the three visiting heads of states expressing, solidarity with Premadasa after the collapse of the summit. Gayoor, who remains the chairman of SARC, made only  a general reference in his speech at the state reception recently to his consultation with SAARC leaders for resolving the crisis created by the absence of Bhutan’s King jme Singye Wangehuk. His banquet speech did not broach on the issue.

Khaleda Zia skipped the issue altogether in her address at the state reception recently. Her

 Banquet speech has not been released.

Speaking at the banquet, Premadas appointed to the unprecedented ideological transformation” around the world. “Centrally planned economies are crumbling, all around us.”

We in this region should not be marginalized”, he said. Again, he called for a collective strategy of economic cooperation, “The logic of events dictates this and leaves us with no other choice”, he said. The four leaders visited Kandy, the big city chosen as the SAARC. Retreat of heads of government.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 15, 1991